Authority of USC police should not be absolute; system needs to be checked 
On ECU's first drive this Saturday, which culminated in a missed field goal, the ball flew directly towards me. Adrenalin rushed through my body as I tipped the ball in the air to gain control, refusing to let it hit the ground. It was a successful catch. My friends cheered and the surrounding students egged me on to pass it up the stands so that the students in the back rows could toss it up on a ledge under the scoreboard, a stadium tradition.
Security guards in front of me stood idle as I appeased the crowd, lobbing the ball to a student waving his hands about seven rows back. All of a sudden, I felt a pair of hands on my back. Next thing I knew, I was forcefully shoved to the ground, my head nearly averting a violent collision with the bleachers. Confused, a friend standing next to me helped me to my feet as I turned to see a large, muscular police officer inches from my face. In a vulgarity-laced tirade that lasted a few minutes, the officer shouted insults and informed me, in the most degrading of ways, that I shouldn't have thrown the football and that my actions had necessitated his assault.
I informed him that I had no idea it was against the rules to throw a football at a football game. He refused to let me get a word in and finally, after covering my face in projectile saliva, walked away with another officer.
Minutes later, I followed the officer to get his name so that I could file a complaint, at which point he physically escorted me out of the stadium. In the end, all I got was a last name: Deputy Scott, gate 26. Scott had assaulted me, lost interest and walked away, then forcefully ejected me, not for partaking in a Carolina tradition, but for asking for his name and badge number. I was told to stay away from the stadium for the remainder of my collegiate days. To make matters worse, an officer who witnessed the confrontation called me a liar outside the stadium when I made an appeal to a controller.
While it is understandable that officers at college football games are prepared to handle rowdy students, it is not a war zone and officers shouldn't respond as if it is. My case was clearly an excessive, unjustified use of force. But what concerns me more is that USC has no measures in place to protect students against hotheaded officers. I have heard of and even witnessed similar incidents before.
USC is so determined to protect students from danger that it has forgotten to install protections against officers who abuse their authority. Given my experience, that authority seems absolute, and no authority should ever be absolute.